Ask the Expert

Kim Dushinski
Kim Dushinski is the President of Mobile Marketing Profits, a marketing firm that helps local businesses use mobile marketing to get more customers. Her company also helps people start their own mobile marketing business and become mobile marketing entrepreneurs. She is the author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step by Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns and a contributing author of Success Secrets of Social Media Marketing Superstars. Kim was named one of the Mobile Women to Watch 2010 by MobileMarketer.com. She is on the business advisory board of bizM3.

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Q&A WITH KIM DUSHINSKI

QUESTION: Hi. Do Non-Profit and political campaigns have to have opt-in?
In my research I have seen that these are the exceptions. I just want to
know if this would work well with your product before I present it to my
board. Thank you.

ANSWER: You're right, the FCC ban on sending commercial messages via the email
address to the phone does not apply to political candidates. However, that
is technically irrelevant since the technology that this ban is discussing
is SMTP messaging, not SMS like the bizM3 platform uses. For more
information about why SMTP technology is not advised, see my post here:
http://mobilemarketingprofits.com/277/no-such-thing-as-free-sms-text-messaging/

I have not seen in the Mobile Marketing Association Best Practices
documentthat non-profits or political candidates are exempt from opt-in. My
strongest suggestion is that even if there is some sort of exemption that
you do not use it. I can't think of a single person who would welcome an
unexpected message from a non-profit and especially not one from a
politician. It is not smart marketing.

I am not an attorney and so the answer I give is my opinion only. If you
want legal advice I can recommend The Lustigman Firm (www.lfirm.com).

Hope this helps. If you have further questions about the bizM3 platform,
please let me know and I can direct you to the proper person on staff.

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